Gossip Diva
by Star-Moonlight1
Summary: Unbeknownst to many, the newest WWE employee is the secret writer of the renowned online blog "Gossip Diva". Her job is to uncover secrets and blur the lines so too speak, but will her own dark secrets get in the way when a certain former Champ steps into her World?
1. Chapter 1

**Present Day:**

_Backstage WWE: Target Center in Minneapolis_

Colby makes his way through the backstage area in a complete fog after his meeting with Stephanie. It's like he's walking in slow motion as he maneuvers through the usual hustle and bustle. The voices calling out his name vaguely register but don't sway him from his path. He needs to get to his dressing room and just revel in the silence, he **needs** everything to stop.

He finally finds his way back and gently closes the door behind him and locks it. Standing with his back resting against the hardwood, he stills himself trying to even out his breathing before slowly slumping to the ground in floods of tears.

He shakes his head side to side over and over, no this isn't happening, he's going to walk back out and bump into her around the corner. They're going to talk and he'll listen this time, he's going to listen to everything she has to say and they will work it all out. No this is not the end, this can't be the way they end.

"Baby, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry.' He sobs.

* * *

**Ten Months Ago...**

_Melbourne, Australia._

A New Year is about hope, starting over and blah blah blah. It isn't about bringing temperatures hotter than the Sun! Currently, the South Eastern Coast of Australia is experiencing one of the worst heatwaves in recent history. And it doesn't help either that the night temperatures are only a few degrees cooler than during the day.

When it's this hot it not only turns your home into a sweatbox but it takes over your entire body as well. All you want to do is go for a swim or take a nice long cool bath, but of course, today's the day the pool filter decides to stop working turning the once beautiful in-ground oasis into a murky mess and the bath; well that's not happening until after work.

Belle sits at her desk a sweaty mess wanting to crawl into either her small air conditioning unit or the desk fan that squirts out cool water like a fine mist - her Mum bought it for her as a novelty Christmas present; whilst she makes her last edits to her blog piece. She goes over it again and again until it reads as well as it sounds in her head and presses save. The "ping" noise indicating a new email blares through her speakers which are up way too loud and she clicks onto her email tab.

She blows out a deep hot breath and reads the header, "Travel Itinerary, WWE CORP". Belle closes her eyes and reclines back in her chair. "Why did I have to go and write that stupid blog!"

For the past three years on the advice of a good friend, Belle's been working for an online Lifestyle/Celebrity site; and her blog "Gossip Diva" is one of the most popular blogs on the site. So when the WWE was last in Australia, a source gave Belle a few tidbits of information to follow up on and after some digging, they were far too good to pass up. Within about ten minutes of her posting, the traffic on her blog hit the roof and beyond, and her fan base.

'Travel Itinerary. Malia L'Touberine WWE CORP

Title: Travel Itinerary, WWE CORP January 17th,2019.

Dear Ms, Westlake,

As per our previous discussion via the telephone Thursday, 10th January 2019, please find a copy of your travel itinerary for your upcoming trip to Stamford to meet with Mrs. Stephanie McMahon - Levesque's Office. I have also enclosed the car service we have arranged for you and a map of the local area.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Kind Regards,

_Malia L'Touberine_

_Senior Assistant, Human Relations. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc._

_1241 E Main St, Stamford, CT 06902, USA._

Belle clicks on the four attachments, flight information, hotel confirmation, car service and the map with a few eateries highlighted and saves them all to her desktop. She likes to keep a backup on the computer in case something happens to her phone - which lately is prone to never being where she leaves it.

She reads through all the information and smiles as she notices the name of the Hotel. She's staying at the Sheraton Stamford Hotel. "Good times". She whispers.

Belle wipes her eyes, even after all of these years the memories of her previous life still have a way of popping up at random. Some make her laugh and smile and others tear at the scars in her heart that she's spent the last four years trying to heal. Reaching forward for her water bottle she takes a deep sip and reclines back in her chair; her mind taking her back to the day her life fell apart...

_**Mid June 2015 - 1AM Wednesday Morning:**_

_Belle walked into her office building in the heart of the greatest city in the World, New York and pressed the button for the express elevator. She'd only been back in the City for less than an hour after her flight from the U.K after covering the three month International manhunt and subsequent arrest of notorious N.Y mobster Johnny 'baby face' Marzuni, and she wanted to make sure that everything went to plan and that her story made it in time for the early morning edition._

_She walked off the elevator on the eleventh floor and headed straight to her desk. She lifted her carry bag onto her desk and sat down digging for her laptop and notepad. Belle loved technology but always had the tendency to back everything up longhand and jot down notes when they floated around in her head._

_'Welcome back kiddo, how was the vacation?" Her editor Alan asked._

_Belle shook her head with a laugh and looked up at him. Alan was in his mid to late forties with a nice 'Dad Bod' with salt and pepper short-cropped hair. "Pretty boring, but I did manage to get a hold of some tickets to Wimbledon, I really thought Serena was in with a good shot at winning this year."_

_Alan burst out laughing, he loved her sarcastic comebacks. "Any issues arise on the way home?"_

_"No boss, all good. Security was incredibly tight as you can imagine but I got some sneaky shots of him but it was fairly quiet. What did you think of my story so far?"_

_"Brilliant as always and don't forget to send the photos to Jimbo, he can clean them up a bit and work his magic." He replied, and wandered off. "Hey Belles, I'm happy to have you home."_

_"Thanks Boss.' Belle replied, and turned her attention back to the computer and connected her blue-tooth signal to the computer. After sifting through all her photos, she finally found the ones from the Plane and sent off a quick message to Jim the newspaper photo editor._

_After a further twenty minutes of additions and edits, Alan gave his final yes and put the next edition "to bed" as they said in the business. Belle leaned back in her chair and relaxed. It had been a really frantic past twenty-four hours and all she wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed. She repacked her belongings away and went back down to the Lobby to hail a taxi._

_"The Flint Building, please." Belle advised the driver as they pulled away from the curb. Belle lived in the Upper Eastside with her stockbroker fiancé Ben Huntington._

_Ben and Belle had been together since they met in High School when Ben and his family relocated to Melbourne. His father had been put in charge of the expansion into Australia for the family's Internationally renowned Investment Firm, Huntington & Flinders._

_After High School, they both went on to attend Melbourne University, Belle majored in Journalism and Ben in Business and Finance. Shortly after graduating the call they had known all along came and soon the lovebirds were jet setting halfway around the world to begin their new life in New York. Ben flew up the corporate ladder at work and eventually landed the prominent role of Investment Banking Vice President whilst Belle had been offered her dream role of lead investigative journalist at the N.Y Express._

_She traveled all around the World covering stories from War Crimes, to Capital Murder cases and her current story involving the Marzuni Crime Family. They were the toast of the town and had an open invitation to any and all parties and events. Life was good on all fronts._

_Later that morning Belle woke to unexpected knocking on her front door. She dragged herself out of bed and grumbled when she noticed that it was just past seven AM. "Hold on I'm coming" She said, as the knocking started to get louder and heavier. "Can I... Are you Miss. Annabelle Watkins?" Asked a large Man in a dark grey suit._

_"Excuse me who are you?" Belle demanded._

_"Are you Miss Watkins?" The same Man repeated._

_"Yes, I'm Miss Annabelle Watkins...We're from the FBI Miss. Watkins, we have a search and seizure warrant please step aside." The Agents quickly entered the Penthouse and walked off in all different directions. "Miss. Watkins, my name is Agent Reynolds, and we need to talk."_

_Belle looked around as her home was torn apart and possessions 'tagged and bagged' and put into huge boxes with the words 'EVIDENCE' written in large black lettering on the sides. "I'm sorry what is all of this about? You can't just come into our home and take our things. I'm sorry where the hell do you think you're taking those?" Belle demanded when another Agent walked past her with boxes of files from Ben's home office. "She can't take those, they're private!"_

_"Miss Watkins, please take a seat and I will explain what's going on." Agent. Reynolds replied._

_'Sit down! You force your way into my home and start ransacking the place and you have the nerve to tell me to sit down, you ... Belle, do not say another word. Agent Reynolds may I have a word please." Announced Marcus James, one of the senior members of the families in house legal firm._

_Marcus was a thirty-five-year-old African American from a very wealthy family in Boston. He was tall well over six foot tall, short-cropped dark hair and was an impeccable dresser. He interned at the firm straight out of Law School and worked his way up to one of the senior partners in record time. He oozed charm and sex appeal like both traits were going out of fashion and didn't suffer fools lightly. He worked hard for everything that he had achieved and was a very proud man, but to say he had a soft spot for both Ben and Belle was an understatement._

_He adored Belle from the first moment Ben had introduced them and he was hell-bent on making sure she made it out of the mess as unscathed as humanly possible._

_"Marcus, what's happening where's Ben?" She asked as he walked in._

_"Belle, take a breath and I will sort this out okay?" He replied, and squeezed her hand. "Let me talk to him and I'll be right back. Speak to nobody."_

_Belle nodded her head and sat down in the living room. She ran her hands over her tired face and tried to gather her thoughts. She'd seen scenes like this before but never once did she think she would be on the receiving end of such invasive measures._

_After a terse moment of back and forth between Marcus and the FBI, Agent Reynolds called out to his team and asked them to drop everything they have in their hands and to join him in the foyer. Marcus walked back into the living room with what appeared to be the warrant in his hand and joined Belle on the couch._

_"Belles, listen to me carefully because we don't have much time." Marcus begun as Belle nodded her head. "Ben, his Father, Grandfather, and several other upper-level managers have been all been arrested...please sweetheart let me finish." Marcus said when Belle started to protest. "They're going to be charged with money laundering, securities fraud, illegal wire transfers amongst many other charges. Don't worry all we need to focus on now is making sure we co-operate with these Agents and let them take what they need. Now I've told them and they've agreed to let you pack a small bag of clothes and other necessities and in return, we'll both go through the listed items here on the warrant and they won't have to make any further mess in here."_

_"I don't understand Marcus, Benji isn't a criminal where have they taken him?" Belle asked._

_"He had an early start at the office and he's been taken downtown to the FBI offices. Belle now is not the time for all of this I'll explain later, now I want you to go with this Agent here and she will take you into the bedroom to pack. Can you do that for me?" Marcus asked kindly._

_Belle looked up to see a female Agent approaching with a small sincere smile on her face. "I... she stammered. "Yeah okay."_

_"Sweetheart, hold it together for just a little while longer, stay strong alright?" Marcus whispered to her._

_Belle closed her eyes and tried to even out her breathing. "The bedroom is through here." She said and lead the Agent away._

_"I'm Agent Parker, Miss. Watkins. Please only pack your personal belongings a few days worth of clothes and toiletries. Do you have a bag or case I can get you?"_

_"Ah, I've just gotten back into the country early this morning, I haven't unpacked yet. " Belle replied and pointed to her suitcase in the corner of the room. "May I grab a few fresher items? She asked somewhat calmly. Marcus was right the last thing anyone needed was for her to freak out and make matters worse._

_"Yes that will be fine, but I do need to go through your case."_

_She exhaled and mentally counted to five before she nodded her agreement and proceeded into her part of the closet to collect more underwear and shirts. She brought them out into the bedroom as Agent Parker opened the case onto the bed. "These are alright, aren't they? Do you need to check them also?"_

_"I will have too, yes. I'm afraid I can't let you take anything else. We still need to process everything else in here. " Agent Parker replied. "Is this small case your toiletries? Did you need anything else?"_

_"Yes they are, and no everything I need is in there."_

_The Agent went through each item and the cases and slowly closed them. "After everything has been cataloged and photographed our Office will be in touch with Mr. James." She explained and placed the case back on the floor._

_"Thank you, oh is it alright if I take a couple of our photos? I can leave the frames if that's going to be an issue?"_

_"You can take a couple of your photographs and the frames Miss. Watkins that's fine." Agent Reynolds announced from the doorway._

_Belle looked up and thanked him. She walked over to her vanity and picked up three of her most treasured memories. One was taken right after Ben proposed, the next photo was of them both and her family and the last one is of her recently deceased grandparents taken at her University Graduation._

_Agent Reynolds helped Belle with her bags as they walked back into the living room where Marcus stood surrounded by the other Agents reading over the warrant again. He looked up as they entered. "Everything okay?" He asked looking at Belle._

_"Yes. Now, what else is on the warrant?"_

_After finishing up with the FBI, Marcus told an exhausted Belle that he and Agent Reynolds had arranged a brief meeting with Ben in a couple of days if she was interested, and until then and beyond the Firm would arrange for her to stay in one of their suites at the Langham Hotel on Fifth Avenue since the Penthouse was still being processed. Belle agreed to meet with him and thanked Marcus for the Hotel. He mentioned that Ben's mother Mary had wanted her to stay with her and the rest of the family, but knowing Belle as well as he did, he politely declined on her behalf making up an excuse about added attention if Belle was seen due to her job and public status. Belle thanked him profusely, the last thing she wanted to do was spend time cooped up at the Huntington Estate virtually under house arrest, surrounded by people she didn't particularly care for._

_Belle spent the next couple of days hiding out in her Suite and only answering calls from Marcus, her Parents who were beyond frantic and her boss- whom she trusted implicitly. How had everything gone so wrong so quickly? Six months ago the man of her dreams proposed and they were busy planning their Christmas Wedding and making plans for the future and then...BAM! It all went up in smoke._

_The arrests had, of course, made headlines worldwide and was the number one topic across Social Media and on the relentless twenty four hour cable news broadcasts. People they had called friends were being stopped in the street and interviewed and throwing them all, Belle included under the proverbial bus. They had gone from being at the top of the social scene to being bottom-feeding piranhas. But none of those things bothered Belle, they could say whatever they wanted and obviously would, all she cared about was Ben. He was the man she loved and she needed to see him and speak with him. None of this could have been true, she knew the real Ben and the man she knew would never have committed the crimes that he had been charged with, not then not ever. She was determined to clear his name and then they could start again. She didn't care about leaving the City just as long as they were together - she believed in her heart that they could get through anything that was thrown their way._

_She messaged Marcus asking to see Ben the next morning and went to bed trying to mentally prepare herself. The next day, Belle was picked up by the private car service under heavy security and taken to the New York FBI offices. Marcus greeted her in the underground parking garage and escorted her upstairs. He spent the few moments they had in the elevator going through the procedures and what was going to happen. "I've arranged thirty minutes Belle, they won't listen in but there are cameras in there and they will be watching you both closely. It's the best that we could arrange I'm sorry."_

_"No, I understand and thank you, Marcus, I really appreciate everything that you've done for not only me but also Ben." Belle smiled._

_After another explanation about the rules from Agent Reynolds, Belle was escorted into the private waiting room, "Please take a seat, Mr. Huntington will be down shortly."_

_Minutes later the door slowly opened and Belle stood up as Ben walked in handcuffs and flanked on each side by FBI agents. "You have thirty minutes."_

_"Hi baby." Ben cried as Belle wrapped her arms around him._

_"Shh, Benji it's okay, talk to me, it's all okay...Belle soothed over and over._

_"I'm so sorry Bella..._

"Hello... A voice calls out from outside pulling Belle back into the present.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Belle says watching her Dad appear in the doorway.

"Mum's going shopping she wants to know if you need anything?"

"Ah, no Dad I'm all good for now thanks." Belle smiles.

"No worries Love, I'll let her know. You all ready for your big trip?"

"Nearly, they sent through all my travel details just then, so I'm just going over them," Belle replies.

"Okay, call out if you need help."

Belle watches her Dad close the door and walk up the back steps leading to the patio. After everything in New York, Belle quit her job at the Express and left the city in disgrace in the dead of night and came back to the family's home in Melbourne. She doesn't speak about her meeting with Ben to anyone, not even her Parents whom she shares everything with no matter how embarrassing.

Belle didn't watch any of the trials or read in-depth any of the articles, but she did know that Ben on the advice of counsel plead guilty to two counts of money laundering, one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. As a part of his deal, he wore a wire to help the government's cases against his Father and Grandfather and is currently serving his ten-year minimum sentence in Upstate New York. The monetary total of his crimes is around thirty-five million dollars.

His Father and Grandfather went to trial and were later found guilty on all charges and are serving their life sentences plus more in Federal Prisons in North Carolina and West Virginia. The three other co-conspirators all took pre-trial guilty plea deals and are serving their twenty-year sentences up and down the North East of the U.S. The Firms' crimes add up to just over half a billion dollars - the press still refers to them as the Madoff's 2.0.

After Belle's departure, Marcus and the FBI after reassurances from Agent Reynolds did declare that nobody except those currently in jail is guilty of any wrongdoings nor at any time a target in their investigations. Eventually, the intense fire around her burnt out, but the damage to her personally and professionally will always remain.

Belle huffs again if the money and the perks weren't as enticing as they are there's no way this would be happening. But let's face it; she's not earning the same anymore and living in a multi-million dollar Penthouse, no she's writing an online blog under an assumed name and living in a Bungalow her Dad built in the back yard. She's not ungrateful she knows she has more than a lot of people do, but perhaps it's time for her to dip her toe back into the real world as her Parents say and get back to having some semblance of a life.

"Alright Belles, time to put your big girl knickers on... Stamford here I come!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** **Hi everyone, please remember that the next few chapters of this story will be told in flashbacks ****until we catch up on the backstory.**

**I only own my O.C's. **

** Please enjoy and don't forget to leave me your thoughts :)**

* * *

_**JFK - Airport:**_

_**Thursday 17th, January 2019.**_

_"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to JFK Airport. Local time is Seventeen hundred hours and the temperature is one degree Fahrenheit._

_For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. This will indicate that we have parked at the gate and that it is safe for you to move about. _

_Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight._

_If you require deplaning assistance, please remain in your seat until all other passengers have deplaned. One of our crew members will then be pleased to assist you._

_On behalf of QANTAS Airlines and the entire crew, I'd like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on-board again in the near future. Have a nice early evening!"_

"One degree?" Belle mumbled to herself, thankful she changed into warmer clothes mid-flight.

The chatty woman seated next to her chuckled and shook her head. "Oh, Darlin' you ain't in "Melborn" anymore."

Belle nodded and bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from correcting the woman's mispronunciation of her home town. She unbuckled her seat belt as per the instructions when the light turned off and leaned forward and gathered her handbag from the floor. She wrapped the cord from her I-pad around the case and packed it away. She plucked out her relevant documents and car service information and waited to deplane.

The usual wait time in the baggage claim area and Customs was much shorter than she remembered and soon Belle was headed off towards where the Drivers stood with their little paper signs. She looked around and quickly found her name in bold letters "Miss. Westlake."

"Hi, I'm Miss. Westlake."

"Good Afternoon Miss. Westlake. My name is Marty and I will be your driver throughout your stay. Please, let me take your bags." Marty looked to be in his mid-forties, around 5ft9'' with hints of grey short hair peeking out from under his black driver's cap.

"Thank you Marty." Belle replied doing up her coat and followed him outside.

They walked across to the Red parking garage towards a nice looking Black luxury Sedan. Marty easily shifted the bags into his left hand so he could open the back door with his right and closed it after Belle hopped in. He quickly moved back to the trunk and placed the two bags in before shutting it and took his place behind the wheel. Belle rested her head back and settled into the plush leather seats. "Note to self...thank the boss for the nice ride. They sure do know how to treat a girl."

"Miss. Westlake, I hope you don't mind, but it looks like we're going to have to take the long way on the Grand Central Parkway, the other routes out of the City are a nightmare right now."

"Oh, oh okay." Belle stuttered. She hadn't thought that they would have taken that particular route. Just the thought of being that close to the City had her stomach in knots. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her composure. In and out, in and out...over and over again. Traffic wise for the late afternoon wasn't too bad until they got closer to LaGuardia of course. The air was filled with the sounds of car horns and taxi drivers as they yelled at each other through both open and closed windows, as they tried to outmaneuver one another.

_"Hey Belles, see if we can get into the next lane." Ben said as he tried to see what the traffic was like up ahead. He had insisted on making the ever-dreaded Airport run to pick her up after her return trip from seeing her parents. He hadn't been able to make it down and thought it would be a nice surprise to pick up her instead of sending a car._

_"Babe, I can't see anything because of all this Snow. Where the hell does he think he's going?" She yelled as a taxi tried to cut them off._

_Ben hit the breaks hard and slammed his fist down on the horn a few times which sent off a chain of honking and hollering a mile long. "Learn how to drive Asshole! " Ben shouted back as the taxi driver swerved back into his lane. "So how was the rest of your trip, Babe?" He asked as traffic once again came to a complete standstill._

_"It was great. Mum and Dad both said to say thanks again for the upgrade. You spoil us too much Mister." Belle smiled leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. She had taken a few weeks off to celebrate her Parents Anniversary and surprised them by taking them to the Whitsunday Islands, a chain of islands off of the North Queensland Coast. It was a gift from both she and Ben along with a few day trips here and there. When Belle and her Parents arrived they were informed that Ben had arranged an upgrade to a private Ocean Front Suite and a Gourmet Chef to cook a special dinner for them all. She was blown away by his generosity and promised to show him how much he meant to her as she got home._

_"I love nothing more than to spoil you and see you smile...as well as a couple of other things." Ben replied with a cheeky grin._

_Belle laughed and shook her head. "Yeah well, those one or two other things will have to wait until we get home. Now get your mind back on the road mister."_

A jolt shook Belle back into the present as the car came to a sudden stop. "Sorry Miss. Westlake, a cab just came out in front of us." Marty said, and shook his head.

Belle couldn't help but smile a little, somethings never change.

* * *

**Meanwhile: WWE H.Q:**

Stephanie was working back late when there was a knock on her door. "Come in." She said out aloud continuing her work on the computer.

"Did you need anything else this evening before I leave?" Diandra, Stephanie's E.A asked popping her head in. Diandra's a bright and hardworking young woman with long platinum blonde hair, an hourglass figure and piercing blue eyes. She had been with the WWE for over three years and directly with Stephanie for just over a year and a half.

Stephanie looked up with a smile and shook her head. "No, you go home D, thanks for everything this week. Have a great weekend."

"No problems Boss, you too."

Stephanie returned to her work re-reading over the final changes to the report before she sent it off to the relevant departments. She hardly worked back late at the Office anymore but since the girls were all away at their different Sports Camps and Paul was on the road with NXT, she had decided to take advantage of the silence whilst she could. She continued with the mounting reports on her desk when a chime on her phone went off. She checked her screen and it was an alert from the Car service indicating that Belle had arrived safely at the Hotel. Stephanie swiped at her screen and turned her attention out of the massive floor to ceiling windows in her corner office.

**Melbourne: October 2018:**

_Stephanie and Paul were finally able to get a few moments to themselves and sat down in the quiet catering hall backstage. It had been nothing but go go go since they had arrived in Australia and it all ended in a few days with their biggest event outside of Wrestlemania especially overseas with the Super Show-Down PPV. The logistics alone were a new level of insanity but they powered through and things were all on the right track and headed towards what they would call a very successful tour when it was all said and done._

Steph had just placed her plate down on the table when her phone chimed with a message. #WWE dirty down under secrets revealed... "What the hell?" She frowned as she unlocked her phone and clicked on the link. It took her to some sort of blog called "Gossip Diva".

_" I spy with my little eye a Bella and her Beast..._

_So much for the huge tantalising headline-grabbing midseason finale of the WWE reality hit Total Bellas! We were left shocked when the gorgeous Nikki Bella broke the heart of her equally gorgeous fiancee John Cena mere weeks out from their star-studded nuptials. So when one of our little sleuths sent me this little gold nugget you could have knocked me down with a feather. It seems the "former no longer speaking couple" have been totally busted when they were spotted looking very happy and gazing adoringly into each other eyes whilst walking around a suburban Melbourne Shopping Center. _

_#WT..._

_I for one have been left lost and utterly confused, I thought everything you saw on "Reality T.V" was just that...REALITY. Now yes I know that there's a bit of a stretch between filming and the actual air date, but come on do our emotions not mean anything to these people? Do they not realise that we grab hold of their lives like they're our own and hang onto their every word? _

_... All of that aside, for now, I'm guessing that I wasn't the only one who found it charming when our John John lay his heart bare on the Today Show in the U.S a few months ago, it seems like our little Miss Bella did too. #AWE_

_So tell me, my little Gossip Sleuths, are we waiting for "A very Bellas Wedding" Special or the headline, and the next Bachelorette is..._

_Leave me your thoughts below. The best comments get an exclusive "Gossip Diva" gift bag and remember... **death threats don't get t-shirts!**_

_XoXo_

_GossipDiva._

_"Death threats don't get t-shirts. That's good, I like that." Paul chuckled._

_Stephanie looked at her husband and sighed. "Of course you would like that. What were they thinking?"_

_"Babe, it's okay it's just a local gossip blog it won't reach that many people. We'll talk to John and let him know that he needs to be more careful next time." Paul said and took a bite out of his Burger._

_"These things start locally but then blow up, you know how this all works. And this isn't the first time that this "Gossip Diva" has written about us." _

_Paul put his burger down and wiped his mouth. "It will all be okay we can spin this there's nothing to worry about." He replied rubbing her back gently. "Eat your food and put it out of your mind."_

_Stephanie smiled weakly at her Husband and put her phone away. "You're right, let's just focus on the show and everything else we can handle later on."_

_Paul nodded in agreement and went back to his meal. Little did they know that soon #GossipDiva would be trending Worldwide and it would mean nothing but trouble for the #WWEUniverse._

Stephanie sighed and turned back to her computer. That show was a huge success for the Company but it also brought some very unwanted attention. The Billion Dollar Princesses fears were proved correct, the blog about Nikki and John blew up but so did the following pieces that revealed backstage happenings and trade secrets.

Paul was right they could handle the "fluffy" stuff as he called it even though it proved to be a headache, but what really had them on edge was the leaking of private company information. Secrets about scripts and backstage meetings and contract negotiations were being very carefully worded into the blog and picked up by all the dirt sheets in the U.S. Leaks like this were very bad for business and had to be fixed immediately. The only problem was they had no idea who was leaking and how they were doing it. Sometimes the information was just little tidbits but then in the comments section of the blog an "anonymous" user had started to upload images of scripts and other documents.

All of this, of course, lead Stephanie on a mission to find out the real identity of Gossip Diva and to find out if they knew who "anonymous" was. For nearly two months she searched high and low for the answers but always came back with nothing. Nobody seemed to know who this blog writer was nor anything about the leaker. It was driving her crazy until one day in early December she arrived home to find her eldest daughter, Adderly, running and screaming in delight through the house. "It's here, it's here!" She screeched.

Stephanie smiled as she removed her coat and put her bag away. "What's here baby?" She asked walking into the lounge room.

"My gift bag!" The young girl grinned holding up a parcel with International Postage stamps and labels all over it.

Stephanie sat down on the couch and watched her daughter as she ripped open the package taking out item after item and unfolding a piece of paper. Adderly then proceded to read the letter out aloud.

_**"Dear Adderly,**_

_**Thank you so much for being the newest member of the Gossip Diva family! I can't remember laughing as much as I did when I read your comments on the Lady Gaga blog...guess what, I love her too! I hope you enjoy all of your gifts and keep all of those super cool comments coming, and you're so right; us girls do have to stick together!**_

_**Take Care Miss A,**_

_**XoXo,**_

_**Gossip Diva.**_

_"AHHH! She read my comments Mom, and she loved them!"_

_On one level Stephanie was so happy to see her eldest happy but she was also intrigued. "I know baby it's very exciting. One question though, when did you become a fan of Gossip Diva?"_

_"Oh, Stella and Dani showed me a few of her blogs at Camp and I started to follow her. Is it okay? I know that she's been posting a lot about your work, I can stop if you want me too?" Adderly replied, hoping her Mom wouldn't make her delete her account._

_Stephanie let out a little sigh, she didn't want to be the one responsible for wiping that smile off her little face. "No, it's fine Addy you can keep your account, but just don't comment on the WWE posts okay."_

_Adderly jumped up and wrapped her arms around her Mom's neck. "Thanks, Mom! I'm going to message Stella and Dani, they will be so jealous!"_

_"Okay, but don't be too long, dinner will be ready soon." Stephanie shouted back as Adderly raced out of the room and up the stairs. She waited until she heard the bedroom door close before reaching for the envelope. She patted down the torn edges back into place and scanned it back to front for any information. She knew the blog originated from Australia, but that didn't mean the blog writer was also from there. She kept studying it until Paul came out of the home office and joined her on the couch._

_"What's up with Addy?" He questioned with a quirk of his brow._

_Stephanie looked up and smiled. "It seems our daughter is the newest member of the Gossip Diva family."_

_"Excuse me?"_

_Stephanie couldn't help but chuckle. "Apparently whilst at Camp, Stella and Dani showed her the newest blog they're members of and she joined too. And no, I didn't know. I didn't even think to add it to the watch list on the browser search but I will add it now." She quickly added. "There, take a look at this to see if you can find anything useful."_

_She handed him the envelope as she retrieved her phone from her Coat pocket in the foyer and logged into the security browser search software they had installed. She added in #GossipDiva and a few others and saved them._

_"Hey Babe, can you get the little magnifier please, I think there's something under this postage mark." Paul said, moving the envelope closer to his face and squinting._

_Stephanie retrieved the magnifier from the desk drawer in the office and rejoined Paul on the couch. "What did you find?" She asked, looking over his shoulder. _

_"Yeah, there's a word underneath this mark just a few letters I think." He replied and looked closer. "Yeah here take a look, does that say "elb" the rest is covered up by this label. Should I try to peel it off?"_

_Stephanie reached out her hand and tried to read what it said. "No, it may rip. Here let me take a closer look. There's a letter before you can just make it out under the ink of the stamp...oh hang on I think it might be "Melbourne". _

_"You think it was originally sent from Melbourne? So this blogger must be from Melbourne. It's not much to go on, but it's more than we've had for the past two months." Paul said, mumbling the last part._

_Stephanie shot him a look before reaching for her phone. "I'm going to take a couple of photos and send them to J.J, see if he can find anything else that we're missing." J.J worked in the Legal Department as an investigator for the WWE. She had contacted him, in the beginning, to let him know what had been happening, but said that she was going to look into it closer, she would call him in if needed, and with the new potential evidence, it was time. "I'm sure he has some sort of software that can help. Okay all done, now come and help me with Dinner."_

_"Yeah, I'm coming." Paul groused._

_A few days later J.J emailed Stephanie at work and said that he may have found something and he would send everything up via internal post as he had to leave for another case. But his cell phone would be on if she needed to contact him. Twenty-five minutes later _Diandra_ knocked on the door holding a large envelope in her hands. "This just arrived for you."_

_"Come on in. Thanks, D, can you close the door on your way out please." She smiled taking the envelope from _Diandra_._

_"No problem." _Diandra replied closing it behind her as she left.

_Stephanie opened the envelope and tipped out the contents onto her desk. _

_"Hey, Steph, _

_So I ran your original photos through a few different programs and you were right, it does say Melbourne and I've got a zip code for you. The package was originally sent from an inner Melbourne suburb called Prahran; it's pronounced Pra-Ran. It looks like a pretty nice place to live. Anyway, the package was then sent to the offices of "Cloudin Media" as you told me. I eventually searched all of the leads you gave me and my own and discovered that they have an office in Sydney. The package was then sent over to you. I've made a few discreet calls nothing traceable back to here and hopefully, I will have more information for you by the time I get back later in the week. In the meantime, here are all the photos magnified at different sizes for you."_

_Kind Regards,_

_J.J. _

Stephanie smiled at the new information. "What's with all the mystery?..." She whispered. "Who the hell are you...


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Reminder that this story is mostly A/U with a splash of realism. I will try my best to keep the timeline for Live Events and PPV's as factual as possible. But everything else is fan-fiction fun!**__**Enjoy.**__**  
*********************************************__**  
**__**Friday 18th, January 2019:**_

_**The next morning:  
**_  
Belle laid in bed sweating profusely after she woke herself up from a dream. She laid in agony with tears in her eyes as the pounding in her head and behind her right eye got worse. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP... She closed her eyes and tried to relax her mind and concentrated on her breathing. She cried out when the pain got worse and stumbled out of bed in search of her medication.

She hated taking pills but when the pain got to this level it was the only thing that worked. She managed to get herself into the bathroom and found her medication in her small toiletries bag and filled up a small glass with some water. Sitting down on the closed toilet she swallowed two tablets and pressed the cool glass against her forehead. "Please work."

After a few more minutes she could feel the pressure in her head start to ease and tried to refocus her vision the best she could before she crawled back into bed. Her first night hadn't gone so well, and she hoped it wouldn't prove to be a precursor of what would come over the next few days.

She had tossed and turned all night trying to find a comfortable position to lay in, during her days at the Express her body adapted better to traveling but it had been quite some time and her body was letting her know exactly how it felt. But the real problem wasn't the mattress it was the star of her dreams... Ben. It had been many months since the last dream of her ex, but it felt that every time she closed her eyes all she saw was his smiling face. Once again reminding her of a broken past and of the future that he obliterated.

"Please, I just want to sleep and not see you anymore."

* * *

**Meanwhile:**

The Superstars of the Raw roster were in San Antonio Texas getting ready for their live show that evening. A handful of Superstars had decided to stay close to the Arena and had booked rooms at the Holiday Inn San Antonio-Riverwalk, including some Female Superstars.

Nattie, Mickie and Pam (Bayley) had made plans to meet up mid-morning to get in a gym session before their scheduled 6 person tag team match that evening. The women had been working out for close to forty-five minutes when Dori (Ruby Riott) and Gionna (Liv Morgan) walked in.

"Where is she even getting this from!" Gionna asked looking down at her phone. "It's like she's got her little spies everywhere, do you think she works for us?"

Dori chuckled and shook her head. "Babe, I don't think she works for us and I have no idea. She's probably got her paid little minions going through trash for all we know."

Nattie stepped off of the treadmill and wiped her face and neck. "What are you girls talking about?" She inquired walking over to them.

Dori turned around with a smile, "Oh just the recent Gossip Girl blog...we're so sad."

"I want to know if it's true or not!" Gionna stated and jutted out her bottom lip. "And I'm not addicted, don't hate me because I like to read."

"Blondie, that isn't proper reading," Sarah, (Sarah Logan) teased affectionately and patted Gionna on the head as she passed by. "And I think we can all agree that we've checked it out more than once or twice."

The other women all shared a look of confirmation and laughed. "So what's this newest one about?" Nattie asked.

"It's from a few days ago but it's more about Nikki of course and a little about Cupid striking for a certain Emerald Isle Superstar." Gionna responded.

"Which one, there's a couple?" Sarah replied.

"Oh, I don't know but what about Fergal, he's been in a pretty good mood lately." Gionna smiled.

Dori chuckled and rolled her eyes again, "Please don't even think about going there...again."

The Women looked over to where the bubblegum loving Liv was standing a little shocked at what Ruby had just revealed. "What's that I'm sorry?" Pam inquired from the exercise bike.

Gionna stood there with a silly smile and twirled her ponytail around her finger. "I was just being nice and I offered to show him around a while back."

Dori and Sarah looked at each other and couldn't hold their laughter in anymore. "Between his accent and her talking a mile a minute, neither of them could understand a word the other was saying. They ended up just standing there staring at each other." Sarah choked out.

"Shut up!" Gionna glared as the Women all laughed. "His accent is really heavy, and I was nervous." She admitted coyly.

"Come on babe, forget it lets's go stretch." Dori said and wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulders. "It may not be about him."

"Was it really that bad?" Gionna mumbled.

Dori squeezed her shoulder, "We're just teasing. And no, it wasn't totally bad."

* * *

Colby arrived back at the hotel after an early morning radio interview and headed straight for the in-house restaurant for some breakfast. It was quiet which he preferred and followed behind the waitress as she showed him over to a small table next to the wall of windows that overlooked the River-walk below. He placed his phone and wallet on the table and sat down. He thanked her for the menu and nodded when she said she would give him a few minutes to look it over.

After he looked over the menu, he decided on the Breakfast Platter consisting of three sunny side up eggs, potato hash with onions and tomato, a piece of sourdough toast with a coffee. He was hungry after not eating well the night before due to car troubles and issues at home which needed to be sorted out sooner rather than later. The waitress walked away with his order and he turned his attention back to the beautiful landscape.

The Hotel was built overlooking the famed River-walk, a network of interconnected paths through the native park lands on the banks for the San Antonio River. It was an absolutely beautiful view which he also enjoyed from the small balcony in his room.

Colby's attention was dragged away from the window down to his phone when it chimed. He pressed the home button and sighed when a familiar name appeared on the screen "Becca".

"What now?" He angrily murmured to himself. He unlocked his phone and swiped on the message. "Stupid crazy..." He seethed as a photo appeared of a pile of broken dishes on what looked like to be his wooden kitchen floor.

"Similar to what you've done to my heart. You're an asshole Colby, I loved you and trusted you...enjoy the clean up!"

The waitress placed his breakfast down as he sent a message to his friend Dan to go over to the house and clean up for him and to go to Walmart and purchase a new dinner set. The last thing he wanted was for his Mom to come back from her Cruise to all of that crap.

"Thank -you." He nodded.

Colby's Mom had recently moved in with him after a few financial and minor health setbacks. He had suggested she move in as he didn't see the point of her trying to find somewhere new to live when he had a perfectly big enough house for the two of them, and it wasn't like he was ever really home enough for them to be in one another's way. Also she proved to be a good buffer between he and Becca.

The last six months of their relationship had been an utter nightmare. They had met in their senior year of High School but had only reconnected within the last two years. At first things were great, but slowly over time they lost their way and the ease and connection they shared got more and more strained. They soon found themselves going up and down almost on a weekly basis with unfair accusations being thrown at him like she was an A grade Baseball pitcher. Whenever a photo of him and a female fan or even a fellow female superstar appeared online she was straight on the phone berating and yelling at him. Eventually after many sleepless nights he summoned the courage to end it once and for all and asked for his keys back.

There had been a few near slip ups and weak moments but that photo was more than enough proof that he had made the right decision. He just wished they could have ended on more civilised terms.

"Note to self, no more crazies!"

After breakfast Colby left the waitress a nice tip and headed back up to his room to change for the gym. He was headed back down when he saw Pam and Nattie exit the elevator on his floor. "Good morning Ladies." He smiled.

"Hi!" They replied in unison.

"How are you, when did you get in last night?" Pam asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I got in a little after two AM. AAA took forever in coming out to look at the car." He sighed and shook his head.

"Oh man that sucks. You should have called and I would have come back for you. We had plenty of room in our car."

"Next time I'll take you up on the offer. Sorry I've got to get to the gym, I'll see you both later."

"No worries, see you later." Pam smiled as they walked off.

Colby rode the elevator down and entered the near empty gym. It wasn't as big as some but it had the essentials and it was better than nothing. He gave a quick nod in the other superstars' directions and turned his music on through his headphones. He lost himself in the music and his intense workout, it was his time to get his mind and body in-tune and after such a hearty breakfast he needed to get moving; fast.

"Alright, here we go..."

* * *

_**WWE PC, Tampa:**_

Paul and Coach Bloom exchanged notes as they walked back to their respective Offices after watching the morning session with the newest inductees to the P.C. There were a few minor standouts but none that really grabbed either of their full attention. Usually they had at least three or four that caught their eye straight out of the gate, but it looked like this group would have to simmer for a while before anyone rose to the surface.

"Let's wait and see how they are in the afternoon. Sometimes it takes a little while to settle in." Matt shrugged.

"True, but I was hoping to see a little glimmer. Keep an eye on the promo class and let me know. I've got a few calls to return but I'll be around for the afternoon session at this point." Paul replied.

"No problem. I'll talk with Shawn and see if we can make a few changes and shake things up a little."

"Sounds good, thanks man." Paul smiled and shook his hand.

He opened and closed his door just as his phone started to buzz. "Hey babe, good timing I was just walking back into my Office. How's everything going?"

"So far so good. I got all of the paperwork submitted on time which is a miracle in and of itself." Steph said with a slight chuckle. "I'm just going over a few notes and changes for the PPV, before my meeting with Dad. How was your morning?"

"Lack luster to say the least. Actually Matt and I were just talking about it, we're hoping for a little more this afternoon." Paul replied taking a seat behind his desk and starting up his laptop.

Steph frowned, "Oh, really? I'm sorry I know you thought this group looked really promising."

"Yeah, well on paper they all look like potential Superstars but you know how that goes. Anyway they have their first promo workshop with Shawn soon, so I'll let him work his magic and see if we can get some better results."

"I'm sure things will get better. So how are the tapings going?"

"They're looking really good. I'm actually in two minds about showing Vince, I don't want him to raid my roster again." Paul laughed.

"He'll do it anyway just to spite you." Steph teased.

"Knowing him you're probably right. All set for next week?"

Steph sighed into the phone. "I hope so. She arrived last night safe and sound I got a message from the car service. I'm just hoping I've made the right move here."

Ever since they had found out Bella's true identity they had gone back and forth about how to handle the rather delicate situation and how to move forward. Obviously keeping it a secret from everyone other than her Father was paramount, but trying to find a convincing way to get her on board, had proved to be much more difficult than they had originally thought. But Like Paul told her at the time, she had to believe in it if she wanted any chance of convincing Bella or Vince that it was the right move.

**Flashback: **

**_November 2018:_**

**_JJ, sat in his darkened office on the sixth floor at WWE HQ going over all the information that he had been given by his sources in regards to the mystery Aussie blogger. After exhausting all of his normal investigative methods and getting nowhere, he found himself having to dive head first into the murkier waters of his profession - something that he wasn't all that happy about. But he had tried everything else and getting to the bottom of this mystery had moved to #one on his list _****_and to be honest the lengths this person had gone to to hide their identity was actually quite impressive._**

**_But after a lot of hard work, his tactics were beginning to show some promise. His sources had been able to gather enough information for him to put the pieces together and once all laid out it was rather interesting to say the least. At the start he had no idea what sort of minefield he had entered but there was certainly no backing out, not after all of his hard work. Finally confident in the facts he called up to Stephanie's Office and asked her if she could come down when she had a free moment._**

**_Shortly after lunch Stephanie went down to the sixth floor and knocked on JJ's door. He called out for her to come in and she closed it behind her again. "Did you find out anything else?"_**

**_JJ smirked as he handed her his file. "Take a look at this. You were never going to believe me if I told you what's going on without proof."_**

**_Stephanie frowned and leaned forward to grab the file and began to read. "Are you serious?" She asked, blown away by what she was reading._**

**_"No wonder she's gone to the lengths she has to hide her identity. If I was in the middle of that I would have done the exact same thing." He replied. "I feel sorry for the girl, she's certainly gone through a lot because of him."_**

**_Steph slowly nodded as she continued looking at the photos and reading the report. Everyone knew of the 'Madoff 2.0' scandal but very little was ever mentioned of what happened to any of the associates and family members. They all seemed to just slip off of the radar so to speak. "I'm not even sure what to say about all of this."_**

**_JJ nodded in agreement. "Steph, it's up to you but if she can help stop the leaks then I think you have to at least meet her. But considering everything that has happened since, I'm not entirely comfortable in people knowing about her identity."_**

**_"No I'm in complete agreement. Can you trust your people to keep quiet?"_**

**_"Oh absolutely. I only got bits and pieces from a couple, never enough for them to cause any issues on their end. I trust them." JJ stated quickly. _**

**_"Ok, good." Steph exhaled. "I wasn't expecting this when I first started looking into what was happening. Thanks for all your hard work JJ, I really appreciate it."_**

**_"Of course. You can keep that, I have a copy but it's in a safe place just in case."_**

**_Steph thanked him again and made her way back to the elevators. She didn't like the idea of 'outing' this poor Woman, but if it shut down the leaks then JJ was right; she really had no other choice than to tell her Father. She sent a quick text message to Paul asking him where he was and that she's coming to his Office as she stepped onto the elevator. She also sent one to D asking her to hold all calls for the afternoon and to call up to Vince's Office and see when he would be free this afternoon. _**

**_"Hey what's going on?" Paul said meeting her as the mirrored doors opened on his floor._**

**_Steph shook her head and handed him the file. He looked at her confused but followed her in as he glanced through papers. _**

**_"What's all of this?" He asked and closed the door behind them. "This can't be true?"_**

**_"It's all true, JJ's verified everything." _****_Steph sighed and leaned back on the leather couch. "This is crazy right? It's like the plot to one of our movies."_**

**_"You know you're going to have to tell Vince right? He's going to want to hear it from you and not anyone else."_**

**_"I know. I've already messaged D to ask her to call up and set a time for me to speak with him. For the first real time I'm kind of lost for words." She replied tiredly. "I want the leaking to stop and I think she could help us with that, but I also don't want to turn her life upside down again."_**

**_Paul closed the file and blew out a deep breath. "OK, let's think about this maybe there's a way to find out what's going on and keep her a secret at the same time. We need to work this to both of our advantages." He explained. "Just hear me out let's brainstorm." _**

**_"What are you thinking?" Steph asked turning her body towards him. _**

**_"From what I can remember of her articles she was pretty good at her job, so let's use that as a positive for us. Perhaps we could hire her as an in-house investigator? Does JJ need a new assistant?" _**

**_Steph shook her head. "No he's all set and his budget has already been approved, no wiggle room at all there. But I do like the idea of hiring her... What are you thinking Mrs. Levesque?" He smirked at the look on her face. _**

**_"We could hire her but not exactly tell her the reason for her hiring, well not the real one anyway."_**

**_"How does that work exactly?" Paul wondered._**

**_"Okay, so she writes this blog that everyone is already talking about, and we're always looking to blur the lines between what's real and what's not so real." Steph smiled. "So we bring her in because we like the concept of her blog and encourage her to keep writing but not tell anyone and along the way she can pick up the trail of the leaker and tell us who it is."_**

**_"How do you know she will go after the real story?"_**

**_"Babe, like you said, she's an investigative journalist it's in her blood she won't be able to help herself." She replied._**

**_"So we get her to come all the way over from Australia offer her one job but hope she performs another but keep it from her and everyone else?" _**

**_"Exactly!" Steph grinned._**

**_Paul laughed and shook his head, "Now all you have to do is find a way to make this all seem like your Dad's idea."_**

**_"And I have five minutes." Steph said looking down to D's message. 'Wish me luck."_**

**_"Better you than me." Paul quipped giving her a chaste kiss._**

**_"Thanks a lot!"_**

"Steph, you've got this. We have everything in place to protect her and keep it all up, everything will be fine."

"You're right I'm worrying about something that hasn't and probably won't happen. I should go I have to get these to Dad. Good luck this afternoon." She smiled.

"Thanks babe, you too. Talk to you tonight love you."

"I love you too baby."

Paul laughed to himself, "Only in the WWE!"


	4. Chapter 4

**WWE HQ:**

_Later that Morning:_

Vince and Stephanie had both been hard at work in his Office going over all the last minute proposals and changes for the first big PPV of the year. The Royal Rumble set off the entire year for them both story-line wise and economically. They always tried to stay in touch with their audience to know what was hot and what wasn't at any given point. Of course they weren't always successful, but with their shareholders sharpening their pitchforks and with the increase in leaks, there wasn't a lot of room for mistakes. The PPV had to be a success and every single paying fan whether in the Arena or at home; had to have a smile on their face at the end of the night.

"What do you think?" Vince asked, with a small satisfied smile on his face.

Stephanie nodded in agreement as she went over the sheets of paper in front of her on the desk, "Yeah Dad, it all looks good." She replied

happily.

"Bring on the Rumble!" Vince laughed and reclined in his chair. "So now we have finished that, everything in motion for next week? She comes in on Tuesday correct?"

"Yes. She arrived last night and checked into the Hotel." Stephanie smiled.

"Excellent. I will admit I wasn't sure at first but it's a good plan and I'm proud with all of your hard work. You should feel good."

Stephanie smiled at her Dad's kind words. "Thanks Dad. I want this to all work out, we need to bring in some fresh eyes to help and we also absolutely need someone to help to stop those leaks. "

Vince nodded his head and leaned back in his seat. "Well judging by her articles she's tenacious I have to give her that, But Stephanie remember that this can't blow back on us at all. Nor your Mother she's worked to hard for her position and I won't tolerate anything interfering with that. "

Stephanie looked at her Dad as the memory of their meetings played in her head. She didn't want anything to jeopordise all of her Mother's hard work either, but they needed to do this or it wouldn't just be Linda's career and reputation ruined, their entire family would be destroyed.

_**Flashback...**_

**_Stephanie quietly entered her Father's Office and took a seat opposite him. She remained silent as he finished up his phone call and tried to gather her thoughts. She bit the inside of her lip something she only did when was nervous and unsure of what was going to happen._**

**_Vince smiled and turned away to gather a file behind him and went through some of the hidden contents. Stephanie took a deep calming breath and re-straightened her blouse and pulled the hem of her skirt down further._**

**_"So, what was so urgent that you needed all my full attention Sweetheart?" Vince asked and turned back to face her._**

**_"It's about the leaks I found some interesting details about the site they were left on."_**

**_Vince looked at his daughter and raised an eyebrow. "You have my full attention."_**

**_For the next thirty or so minutes Stephanie relayed all of the information and showed her Father the file that she had shown Paul. She sat examining her his face but it was like playing Poker with a Cobra no indication of when but you knew the bite was coming and that it was going to be painful. _****_After a few more minutes, Vince finally looked up and removed his reading glasses from his face and placed the file down on his desk. He looked at Stephanie dead in the eye; "Who else knows about this?"_**

**_"Apart from myself only JJ and Paul. I had JJ work on this by himself and everything was verified by well trusted sources." She replied with a nod._**

**_"And how exactly is this Woman going to help us?" Vince questioned._**

**_"I'm still trying to digest everything." She lied, and hoped her Poker face was up to scratch. "I wanted to bring all of this to your attention and thought we could work on this together."_**

**_Vince contemplated her words but remained silent. He searched her face; she was good but she wasn't quite at his level yet. "Have you thought about the ramifications for all of us if you go ahead and make contact? She's gone to extreme lengths to hide her identity and stay out of sight."_**

**_"I have and it's certainly a sticking point yes." She admitted._**

**_"Stephanie, we need to approach this very carefully we can't afford for anything to blow up in our faces. We can't have any reason for the mainstream media to hate us even more, especially given your Mother's role in the current administration." Vince stated as he tapped his fingers on his desk. "Tell me more about this blog."_**

**_"It started of as a normal entertainment blog gossip and Hollywood news, but since our last visit to Melbourne news items started to pop up about us and certain couples. Nothing too serious except for the photos of John and Nicole, but we handled all of that. And then as you know parts of the scripts started to leak online and a few pages were posted to the message board section of her blog." Stephanie explained. "And then backstage notes and photos also started to appear of sensitive information and that's when I tried to find out what I could. As you know I got nowhere fast and got JJ onto the case and it's taken him awhile to find out everything he put in the report."_**

**_Vince listened to his daughter and tried to formulate a plan. If they could somehow bring this blog person in and keep it under the radar but also unearth the leaker, then the risk would have been worth it. But that's the question, how were they going to bring her in and would she even agree to it? _****_The measures this young woman had gone to to basically erase her former self was simply impressive, so they certainly had their work cut out for them in order to make this work. _****_"Do you know if anyone in the Company would recognise her? _****_That family stole a lot of money from a lot of people. I don't want someone from the Office seeing her walk around the halls and post it online." Vince said and shook his head._**

**_Stephanie looked slightly taken aback. Of course she had thought of that what was she a rookie? "The report should be in there." She said and pointed towards the file."JJ and I both cross checked all of the names of our current and recently released staff with the names that we found through the online court papers. We couldn't find anything. Some Company names appeared but they also came back clean. "_**

**_Vince checked the contents again and didn't find anything. "The report isn't in here, I would be very interested in making sure that everything has been thoroughly checked and I would also like to go over it." He replied._**

**_"I must have left it with Paul accidentally. I apologise. Once JJ and I have gone over everything again, it will be back on your desk."_**

**_"I trust you, I would just like to go over it myself as well. One more thing, do you remember her photo being in the news at all? I vaguely remember a couple after the arrest, but not afterward. Do you think that she's changed her physical appearance at all? I didn't notice any current photographs in here. Perhaps she's changed her look as well as her identity?"_**

**_Stephanie shook her head. "No. As you said there were only a few from years ago but nothing substantial since. I guess she wouldn't have made such a great investigative journalist and had gotten all of the scoops for her articles if her face had been published all over the place. And JJ wasn't even able to get any recent photos." She sighed. "She's REALLY gone off the grid Dad, we're lucky that he could find all of this."_**

**_"Whilst I appreciate everything so far, there are still questions that need to be answered before we even think about organising a meeting. Triple check on all your findings in regards to if the Firm had any dealings with any Staff here and in New York and get back to me."_**

**_Steph nodded and stood up eager to get to work. "We'll also extend it to include the roster as well. We did the main roster but I wouldn't mind if we extended it out a little further."_**

**_"Good thinking yes, we can't afford any surprises. Leave the file with me and we can talk again later." Vince advised._**

**_Over the next two days, Stephanie and JJ worked day and night on what Vince had asked and completed another rigorous search into everything that he had mentioned and included the developmental rosters. They extended the original search they did out by five years just to be sure and anyone that was on the road with them backstage. They really had destroyed so many lives with their lies and criminal activities, it was hard to even comprehend the totality of it all._**

**_So, one could only begin to imagine the immense sense of relief JJ and Steph felt when they discovered zero links between the Firm and the WWE._**

**_"Bastards." JJ huffed, after they were finished._**

**_"So many innocent lives ruined, what a nightmare." Stephanie _****_replied sadly. "So much destruction and people call my family monsters."_**

**_"Steph, you and your family aren't monsters, ruthless yes but that's just business. These people were a major criminal enterprise, there's absolutely no comparison." JJ reassured her._**

**_The next week Stephanie was called up to her Fathers' office to discuss everything that she had sent to him through internal post. Vince had taken his time re-examining absolutely every document and note. It had taken him a little while but after much thought he had come up with what he hoped would be the best solution for all involved. _**

**_"Hi Steph, thank you for coming up so quickly Sweetheart. I have gone over it all and I believe that what I've come up with will be the right step forward." He said, as she sat down. "We're really looking at two different things here aren't we? We need to control and stop the leaks, but we also need to be in control of what happens with that blog, certainly the posts pertaining to us."_**

**_Stephanie smiled and agreed with Vince. "Of course, if we can do that then it's a win win."_**

**_"Indeed it is. So let's make her an offer she couldn't possibly refuse."_**

**_"What did you have in mind?"_**

**_"She needs to believe that the offer is legitimate which of course it will be, but I don't think we need to divulge everything to her in the beginning. You said that there's a lot of interest in her blog backstage and on the Internet, so let's use that to our advantage. Hire her as a backstage employee whilst having her still write her blog but we get to feed her more of what we want instead of what others pass along." Vince explained. "I miss the days where the audience didn't know what was real and what wasn't. These days everything is torn apart by morons who have convinced themselves that they're insiders when they have no idea at all about what goes on behind the curtain. We need to take back charge of the narrative and bring more realism back into the business."_**

**_Stephanie continued to listen to her Dad, whilst trying to drown out the annoying sound of her Husbands' gloating. "Babe, this is all going to plan. We're brilliant! Told you, what did I tell you? HE has to believe it's his idea..."_**

**_"You can tell her that we are intrigued by her blog and everything that I just said, and that her cover could be as your new assistant. You've mentioned a few times that you're in need of another extra set of hands, so why not offer her the job?"_**

**_"Shh..." Stephanie said in her head. "Yeah I think that could work. We would have to keep her off camera which is fine and I could just give her some of the more mundane tasks to make it look good, but as she's "working" for me backstage she could also find out some information or gossip and we could use that to our advantage."_**

**_"Great idea. And when it comes to the leaker, I believe she can be our salvation." Vince smirked._**

**_"Go on..."_**

**_"We can ease her into the new position and even have her do a few days in the Office. I thought we could have her in both but I don't think it will work out if she found out that she would have to go back to New York. We can't run the risk of her running into anyone from the past."_**

**_"No absolutely not. But I like the idea of her being here in the Office. Her natural instincts of hunting down a good story will want to make her stay and find out who it is and why."_**

**_Vince laughed. "It scares me how alike we are! So let's get all the finer details down and then we can reach out to her."_**

"I understand Dad and I don't want to ruin anything for Mom either. We will navigate these waters as gently as we can whilst working every lead we get until we find out who is trying to sabotage us." Stephanie replied coldly. "By the time we're through this person will regret the day they ever stepped foot in our business."

Vince grinned, he loved that his daughter was so passionate about the Company. It made loosening his grip bit by bit a little easier. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention to you; we've had to move the photo shoot for the Rumble to downstairs in the studio. The place we had booked have had to shutdown for a small period. It seems a water valve burst overnight and has caused some considerable damage." He said and shook his head. "It's more cost effective to do it in-house anyway. So that is also scheduled for Tuesday morning. How long do you think your interview will take?"

"Not long. I've set aside a couple of hours so I can come down afterwards and make an appearance if I'm needed." Stephanie replied and made a note in her diary about all of the changes. "Okay, I need to head back to my Office, was there anything else?" She asked and gathered her belongings.

"No that's all. I will get Beth to make some copies and send them to the relevant names on the list. Thanks again Sweetheart for your help."

"My pleasure Dad, I'll see you next week." Stephanie said and kissed her Father on the cheek and quietly left. She said a quick goodbye to Beth who was seated out at her desk and made her way down the long hall to her corner of the Executive Suite. She shot a quick message off to Diandra about the changes for Tuesday and entered her Office.

**_"Hey D, can you please move around anything that I have after my meeting on Tuesday, and black it out. The photo-shoot has been moved to here and I need to make an appearance - Thanks Steph._**

With that done she made her way over to her desk and sat down, a small sigh escaped her lips. She had so many things left to do and little time to get them done, she just needed to take a minute or two to close her eyes and re-charge. She reveled in the peace until a small ding came from her phone. "Please let it be something good..."

* * *

**Hotel:**

Belle woke up feeling considerably better after her medication had kicked in and managed to have a couple of dream free peaceful hours of rest. She rolled over to check the time and was happy that she was still going to be able to order a nice cooked breakfast. She picked up the menu and scrolled through and ordered; Scrambled eggs with no milk on sourdough toast no butter, with a side of spinach and mushrooms with an almond milk latte.

After placing her order and being told it would be delivered within the next twenty minutes, Belle eased herself out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower. She turned the water on and waited for the perfect temperature before she hopped in and turned her back to the spray and relaxed. The water felt amazing as it fell over her shoulders - it was exactly what she needed to put her back in a somewhat happier frame of mind.

Belle finished her shower and wrapped herself up in the supplied fluffy robe, and sat back down on the bed with her phone in hand, She once again scrolled through her messages and brought up a rough draft of her newest blog that she had started the previous evening. Lost in thought when the custom "ping" rang out, Belle's eyes snapped to the top of her screen as an alert appeared "new comment added to gossip diva."

"Let's see what my little sleuths are talking about." She clicked the alert and waited for the blog to load before moving down to the comment section. "Oh come on not again."

"Anonymous" was back with more script drafts and a few photos of sketches about potential stage layouts pertaining to the first PPV of the year; the Royal Rumble.

"No more buddy, can't have this, at least not this week." Belle clicked on the profile and deleted the newest message. Usually, she was all for people posting good or bad, but this was getting beyond a joke. The comments were infrequent at the beginning but had begun to escalate to at least three leaks per week and photos. "The last thing I need is to be sued by my potential new employer." Belle mumbled to herself and hit ctl - alt - del. She searched for all of the posts did a quick screen grab and hit the "delete all" option.

After completing her task and banning the user and their I.P address she sent off a quick message to her team back in Australia and asked for the I.T Dept. to keep an eye out for the user. She also asked them to put safety measures in place so that no further photos of anything pertaining to WWE scripts and such made it onto the blog without going through her.

A small knock on the door drew her attention away and Belle walked over to answer.

"Good Morning, Miss Westlake, here is your breakfast." A nice young man said holding a tray with her food and coffee.

"Good Morning, can you put it over near the window please, thank you." She smiled, and stepped back to let him in.

Belle nodded her head and gave him a small tip as he quietly left.

Her stomach rumbled as she sat down and lifted the tray lid up. "Beautiful." She smiled as the smell wafted through the air and greedily tucked into her delicious meal. After a few more bites, she returned her focus back onto the blog and happily lost herself in work. No more bad thoughts about the past, nothing but good times ahead.

"Trust yourself, focus on the future don't let the ghosts from the past get in the way anymore. Nothing but blue skies ahead."


End file.
